2013 is here!
In remembrance of a very culinary 2012, I would like to offer you a round-up of my twenty favorite food-finds and kitchen-finds of the year. These are, I'd say, the tools of the trade that I either discovered, experienced, or fell completely in love with during the past twelve months.
And now, in no particular order, the list. Happy New Year, friends.
•Dates. So, I was skeptical of dates for a long time, and I always considered them a sort of nasty, useless, prune-ish item. This year I discovered their true power, though. Around here, they've graced salads, cookies, granola, pizza, and many other things. Sweet, but also nutritious? Sweet, but also flexible? Sweet because of SUGAR? Yes, give me all your dates!
•Ginger syrup. Remember when I first started making this? It's just silly how easy it is. I feel like a DIY genius when I make this syrup, and I feel like a brilliant wizard when I make concoctions with it. Then, when I turn this syrup into a ginger ale, or a cocktail, I want call up all the hip new bars and tell them I've got my own perfect, fancy syrup, thank you very much, and I don't need your $14 drinks! (Side note: I had approximately 400 ginger-peach sodas yesterday, and POOF! I am now feeling much less sick than I was yesterday. See?? And by the way, that's ginger simple syrup + peach juice from Trader Joe's + seltzer water. You can also add booze, of course. Or black tea. Or both. Amazing.)
•Fever-Tree mixers. I hate to love these liquids, but DAMN IT they're amazing. When I first heard about these insanely expensive, tiny-bottled British delights, I was skeptical. I mean, tonic water is just tonic water, right? And all soda water is the same? Well, the answer is NO. Absolutely not. One should never dilute their cocktail with a sub-par mixer, ever. It's a waste of liquor! And now I have become so incredibly snooty that I scoff relentlessly at other tonics and soda waters. Ugh, it's so embarrassing. And then, just this past week, my mom introduced me to the bitter lemon variety and I lost my mind. She loves them just as much as I do, and that is one of the 90 bazillion reasons I love her. Such marvels, these liquids! Worth every penny.
•Ebelskiver (and the pan with which to make them). Oh, Denmark! Remember when the Vikings came back from war and they had no pans so they made pancake balls in the divits of their banged-up shields over an open fire? And then, one day, ebelskiver turned into a traditional Danish treat, and a special dimpled pan was invented just for making them, and they were filled with jam and cheese and everything delicious? And now they are made everywhere, including my kitchen? Thank you, Denmark. I promised myself I would never again have a single-function kitchen appliance, and I broke that promise -- all for you. But you're worth it. You are totally worth it.
•Lunch notes. Around here, one of the most important morning tasks has become lunch-note writing. If you are Andy, you will open up your lunch at noon and find a post-it note, crammed full of ridiculous questions, thoughts, ideas, puzzles, comics, lists, and pictures. And you then fill in the blanks, or do the puzzle, or compile the list, and you bring it home, and you stick it on the hallway wall next to all the other lunch notes, and you will get a high-five for your awesome answers. And lunch for you, I hope, is one of the most exciting (or at least funny) moments of your day. Oh, lunch notes! One day we will have a million of these on the wall!
•Rye whiskey. It all started this autumn with the Lion's Pride Dark Rye from Koval Distillery at a local bar. And then the Canadian delight, Tap 357 Maple Rye Whisky, at a bar over Christmas vacation. It's one of the most recent additions to my best-of list, but it's a good one. I've been a whiskey-on-the-rocks drinker for at least a decade, and I thought that I knew what it all tasted like, but rye is a completely different story. If regular whiskey is a boat, then rye whiskey is a rocket ship to the moon with a crew of really cool, really nice astronauts wearing spacesuits made out of boats and talking about how spaceships are cooler than boats.
•Underberg. Ah, yes, yet another liquor from another land! This German company tells us that Underberg is a "gift of nature" that is "best consumed after a good meal" so that "the world of joy can become unpacked." It's bitter as fuck, bizarre as it can possibly be, chock full of every assaulting herb on the planet, and a complete miracle. Buy a tiny case of this elixir (really -- each adorable, dollhouse-sized bottle is a mere ounce), keep it in the fridge, and pull it out when your finest guests have consumed one too many plates of wiener schnitzel. Pour into cordial glasses, swig it fast, and you'll all feel better in an instant.
•Rum. Wait a second, am I still talking about liquor? For crying out loud! Well, I'll just say that I truly started to understand rum this year. Determined to get to know the brown stuff with a bad reputation, we got some dark spiced rum called The Kraken. Gorgeous label design, and a taste that is equally as appealing. Why have I spent years not drinking rum? I'm not quite sure, honestly. I just know that sailors and pirates and all those Jimmy Buffett fans sure do know what they're talking about. It's good. Really good. (And combined with either Fever-Tree or Fentiman's ginger beer, it's nothing short of a miracle.)
•Breitsamer Rapsflower Blossom Honey. My parents introduced me to this dreamy honey, and it's incredible. It's definitely in the running (along with Shadowland Seed honey from White Cloud, Michigan) for best honey ever. Hurrah for honey, but mainly hurrah for
this honey. Like that godforsaken Fever-Tree, I've discovered that honey just really needs to be
good honey. And I'm not going to feel ashamed about wanting good honey. I simply do not want a Sue Bee honey bear from the grocery store, because I want real honey, with real taste, from real bees and a real beekeeper who wears a real beekeeping suit and has a whole story to tell about how he became a beekeeper and how many times he has been stung. I've been so excited about local honey for the past few years, and it makes me so happy that incredible, local honey is so widely available nowadays. While this creamy, ribbony rapsflower (rapeseed) honey hails from Germany, and not the local Amish guys, it's still small-batch, divine, and is, delightfully, the product of three generations of the honey-loving Breitsamer family.
•Things I Used To Not Like. Coincidentally (or not), the foods in this category are things that are healthy in a major way:
Anchovies, check! Seriously useful, anchovies have the deep, layered flavor that cannot be acquired elsewhere.
Kale, check! Ah, shucks, kale. As you know, you finally sold me this year. I'm in. I'm all yours. I fold. And thank you.
Dark chocolate, check! I never thought I would eat dark chocolate for fun. I really didn't. Then, all of a sudden, with no rhyme or reason, everything changed. I actively choose you now, dark chocolate. You win. You did it! (And, yes, I still madly love milk chocolate. Let's keep that in mind, all of you dark chocolate out there.)
•Fustini's Peach Vinegar. Every product that Fustini's makes is unbelievable, but my newest love is the peach balsamic vinegar. It's astoundingly versatile, and this stuff goes into and onto EVERYTHING these days. Fruit + vinegar = genius.
•Pumpkin seeds. Oh, pumpkin seeds! For some reason, you smell terrible to me when I first open the package, but then, all of a sudden, the odor goes away and I smell earth and salt and pumpkin and extreme goodness. I've been putting these little suckers on salad, and I've been loving them in yogurt. My treat of the year has been Chobani plain greek yogurt + this amazing, easy caramel sauce I made + pumpkin seeds + almonds. What's that? You've stopped reading because you had to run to the grocery store? I know, I know. I get it!
•This peeler. Kuhn-Rikon, you have changed my life. I have had at least a dozen vegetable peelers in my life, and I have not liked a single one of them. But this? This is it. This is MY peeler. The serrated blade is what makes it incredible, smooth, and perfect. For some reason, it doesn't get as clogged as other peelers, and my favorite thing about it? It peels with every single stroke. Every one! As long as you can deal with the tooth marks on your vegetables after your peeling session, then you will be a-okay, and you will love this thing. I would be peeling something right now if there was anything left in the house to peel.
•Fee Brothers Plum Bitters. Flavored bitters are pretty hip these days, and I kinda hate to be in the mire of ultra-hipness and fashion, but I do love all the Fee Brothers flavors. The plum, though, is my new favorite. It tastes, I'd say, like an actual plum, and that is not exactly a flavor that one stumbles upon very often. And, like the peach vinegar, this product is surprisingly versatile. These bitters have my vote.
•Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold Tea. Why is this black tea so orange? I do not know, and I don't care, because it tastes so amazingly AMAZING. It's a blend of black teas, but I think someone accidentally spilled their orange watercolor factory into the tea-processing plant. It's the orange pekoe, I reckon, but the color just makes me so happy, and it doesn't stain my mug like most black teas. Plus, it's smooth, not at all bitter, and all I can say is, thank you, United Kingdom. You are a darling.
•Miracle vessels: the Creative Home tea kettle and the 12-cup Bodum French Press. Andy got this blue kettle for me this year, and I am in love. For way too long, I was boiling water in a saucepan, and when our German friends came over and (lovingly) laughed their faces off at the whole non-kettle thing, we decided it was time for a change. The next thing I knew, I had this beautiful kettle on my hands, and I cannot live without it. It works so fast that, even after six months, we are still astounded to hear the rattling and whistling-beginnings after the burner's only been on for 10 seconds.
And the new, gigantic french press? I has been eyeing this thing for YEARS and then -- wow and thank you! -- I got it for Christmas last week from my mom and dad (are you finally getting an understanding of how epically perfect these two humans are? I hope so.) Andy and I had house guests last night, and we just used it today for the first time. Enough coffee for everyone! It is every bit as amazing as it looks.
•Greasy Skillet Magic Trick. My brother picked this up for me in Los Angeles right before he moved to Chicago. I haven't used it yet, but I don't even need to use it in order to know that it is the perfect addition to my kitchen. The basic story: put this weird little packet of powder into your greasy wok or pot and then, like complete and utter perfect science, a solid, disposable disc of stuff is born. And then you throw it away and say, thank you, Japan, for not making me scrape the grease out of that pan.
•Mama Selita's Jalapeño Ketchup. This ketchup is a zillion times better than regular ketchup. It has the consistency of a true homemade ketchup, and I love that about it, especially considering that this ketchup is made by the giant food conglomerate, Red Gold. Andy, the Spiciness Lover, brought this product into my life. Red Gold products are made in northern Indiana, where his family is from, and a bottle of this special potion is on the table of many restaurants in the area. After brunching our pants off at Mishawaka's famous Curve Café on Saturday with his parents, we scooped up a couple bottles to bring home, where it will last approximately two days (total exaggeration, but damn, it's good). Like Underberg, the label is hysterical:
REALLY SECRET the label taunts. And then, in repeat on the top label:
SASSY BOLD ATTITUDE. Indeed!
•Knock-off Raincoast Crisps. I love Raincoast Crisps as much as a human can love a thing, but shoot, nine dollars is a lot for a box of crackers! The price tag moves them from everyday-cracker to special occasion-cracker, which is why I was thrilled beyond belief and reason when Trader Joe's started producing a knock-off version of the Best Cracker. The flavor TJ's makes is rosemary raisin, which sounds uncomfortable, but is actually unbelievable. They're great with brie, and so good plain, too. The Cracker of the Year Award has now been distributed.
•These glasses and twelve grapes at midnight. We got these beautiful cocktail glasses at -- get this -- a tiny history museum in our vacation town of Northport, Michigan. The gift shop consists of a few shelves of dusty books and postcards, and then, on the bottom shelf, there was a tiny garage sale of dishes. And that's how these perfect, stunning glasses came home with us. They were fifty cents apiece, and are almost identical to the glasses my dear friend Meghan has. I've admired her glasses for years, and I'd been hunting and hunting for some of my own. And, as with all incredible life things, they showed up when I was least expecting it. They make me so happy! We used them for New Year's Eve last night, and look! Twelve grapes for each of us. This turning-of-the-year tradition, I've learned, is popular in Spain and Mexico, amongst other places. Since my darling Chicago-friend Colleen was jetsetting in Barcelona over the holiday, I thought we'd be one inch closer to her as we entered the new year, and so we did and so we were. Twelve lucky grapes down the hatch at midnight! So far, so good, my friends. So far, so good.
